NERC approves N756bn investments for 11 power firms

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has approved N756.74 billion Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) for the 11 Distribution Companies (DisCos) for the next five years in their Performance Improvement Plan (PIP).

The projected investment directives were requested for by the DisCos in 2020 through an extraordinary tariff review application.

According to the orders signed by the Chairman, Sanusi Garba and the Commissioner, Legal, Licencing and Compliance, Mr Dafe Akpeneye on April 29, 2021, the approved PIP is expected to start by July 1, 2021 and end by June 30, 2026.

There are anticipations of a tariff increase as the DisCos could only generate the N756bn fund through the tariff.

NERC recently announced it is reviewing the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) 2020 tariff and could implement the result on July 1, just as the Minister of Power, Engr. Sale Mamman, clarified in a statement that the increase would not be significant.

According to the information contained in separate orders to the 11 DisCos, the highest fund approval went to Ikeja DisCo as it got N121.9bn to implement its network improvement target. It was followed by Kaduna DisCo with N114bn target; Eko DisCo is the third with N93.76bn expenditure while Benin DisCo will spend N93.5bn on these investments.

Ibadan DisCo is to spend N91.1bn, Abuja DisCo will spend N75.98bn, while Port Harcourt got N75.5bn as approved CAPEX.

For the others, Enugu DisCo has N67.4bn approved fund, Kano DisCo will spend N63.1bn investing in network and transformer infrastructure while Jos DisCo got N47.2Bn as its approved investment fund. The lowest is Yola DisCo with N27.3 for its five year investment.